1) Cold realism

It was the sort of one-sided rout that any rugby competition can do without. The home team scored more than 60 points, the outcome was decided long before half-time and two of the visiting team have since been booked on separate flights home after fighting in the aftermath of their embarrassment.

For any Widnes supporters wondering about that last line, and why their team would have flown home from Wigan, this is not a reference to Saturday night's televised Super League fixture but to a Super XV match in the other code between the Sharks and Melbourne's Rebels played a few hours earlier. Apologies for dragging rugby union into this but it seemed relevant because many have jumped on the Wigan-Widnes game as evidence that the whole Super League competition is rotten. I'm guessing the Super XV followers in South Africa, New Zealand and most of Australia won't have reacted to Melbourne's mauling in similar fashion.

There were specific circumstances at Wigan on Saturday which conspired against a Widnes team who remain one point better off after eight matches this season than they were 15 games into the 2012 campaign. They were missing a number of senior players including Stefan Marsh, Cameron Phelps, Gareth Hock and Kevin Brown. They had made Super League's most disruptive away trip to Perpignan the previous weekend where they ran out of steam against the Catalan Dragons after a highly competitive first-half performance. Perhaps most pertinently, they ran into a Wigan team who were smarting after a narrow defeat at Leeds, and boosted by the return after injury of a hungry Sam Tomkins.

The landslide, while disappointing, was therefore not wholly unpredictable. As several, most volubly the former Great Britain captain Garry Schofield, have pointed out, it was a strange game for Sky to select for live coverage.

All of which is not to say that everything is fine and dandy in Super League's garden, with a couple of problems highlighted by the weekend's unseasonal wintry blast. Having had their fixture at Wakefield postponed first on Friday night, and then again on Sunday afternoon, Leeds now find themselves having to squeeze it in at some stage before September – but, if strapped to a lie detector, their coach Brian McDermott would surely seize the chance to forfeit the match and concede the two points to Wakefield, safe in the knowledge that the Rhinos would make the top eight play-offs regardless and have won the Grand Final in each of the last two seasons after finishing fifth. That is how farcical the situation has become, and the drop-off in attendances across the board this season is surely a reflection of the growing disillusionment of rugby league supporters with the current system, and of the myopia of the clubs and the Rugby Football League in failing to tackle the issue last winter.

The fact that Hull KR and Castleford had their fixture switched to an icy Sunday night at the whim of Sky – whose Friday night schedule was filled by live international football, cricket and golf – is also a reminder of rugby league's unhealthy subservience to its major broadcast partner.

But like the structure of the Super League and the length of the season, that is set in stone until at least the end of the current licensing period in 2014 and probably for the length of the current TV contract which runs until the end of the 2016 season – and without which the game would be in a truly horrendous financial mess. So for all the desirability of a short, sharp and high-quality 10-team competition running from April to September with automatic promotion from and relegation to a similarly intense 10-team Championship, it just ain't going to happen, folks.

2) Easter egg-cess (sorry)

However, one reform could be made in time for next season which would take some of the pain out of the sort of fixture pile-up with which several clubs, notably Leeds and Castleford, are now grappling, and therefore remove one of the excuses for capitulations such as Widnes's at Wigan at the weekend. As a rugby league traditionalist who has relished the Easter feast for almost three decades now, I type this with some reluctance but it is time to accept the reality that playing two full rounds of fixtures in the space of four days now does more harm than good.

It is unfair verging on potentially dangerous for the players. Attendances on Easter Monday are never anything to write home about. But most damagingly, the pile-up accentuates the difference between the big clubs with their strong squads and those who are struggling to make do and mend. Castleford seem most likely to suffer from that this year, as after Sunday night's defeat at Hull KR they must now play Wakefield, St Helens and Huddersfield in the space of nine days – the sort of schedule that could wreck their season. Widnes have things slightly easier but still have to lift themselves after their mauling at Wigan for another derby against Warrington on Friday, then go to Huddersfield on Easter Monday before facing Salford the following weekend.

Spreading out a single round of fixtures over the Easter weekend would be better for everyone, even Sky, who could show a quartet of derbies – Wigan-Saints, Leeds-Bradford, Hull-Hull KR and Warrington-Widnes – on consecutive days.

So a plea to the RFL strategists – stop laughing at the back – and the Super League clubs. Start thinking about the 2014 season now. Most importantly, rid us of the preposterous top-eight play-offs – but ease the pain of the Easter weekend while you're at it.

3) Join our club

Right, some good news required after that lot, so positive all the way from now on. A consideration of the Easter fixtures later but first congratulations to Engage, the much-missed former Super League sponsors, for their ongoing support of the game through the Engage with Your Club initiative.

They have teamed up with Rugby League Cares, the RFL's official charity, to offer cash incentives to community clubs keen to improve their facilities – and Super League's big names such as Ryan Hall, Sam Tomkins, James Roby and Eorl Crabtree have all jumped on board. Almost 40 clubs have already registered their interest in taking part this year since a launch fronted by the England coach, Steve McNamara, last week.

"I haven't done any training yet, I'm waiting for it to get warmer," Lauren tells the current edition of Forty20 magazine. "Chev pissed himself thinking I was joking. He keeps telling everyone and they also look stunned and think I'm joking. Wow, I sound so lazy." Good luck, Lauren – but perhaps best not waiting for that elusive warmth.

5) Golden glow

Next, a hat-trick of good news stories from the south. Congratulations to the University of Gloucestershire All Golds for recording their first competitive win at the weekend, against Gateshead Thunder in the Northern Rail Cup. A shocking result for a Gateshead team including several Hull KR players on dual registration, as well as the experienced former Castleford prop Jason Payne, but this must be an occasion to salute the victors – whose 18-16 triumph was secured by a try from Tyla Hepi, the son of their coach, Brad.

On Friday the All Golds welcome the south's newest professional club, Oxford, who make their competitive debut at the Prince of Wales Stadium in Cheltenham in the first round of fixtures in the Kingstone Press Championship One. Oxford have some high-calibre backing, notably from the former St Helens chief executive, Tony Colquitt, as well as a terrific and historic home ground at Iffley Road, and their first home fixture against South Wales Scorpions on 13 April sounds irresistible to a rugby league anorak.

Way across to the east, a notable result from the Carnegie Champion Schools competition in the Year 10 Boys competition, in which St Edmund Arrowsmith of Wigan made the long journey to face Colchester Royal Grammar School, and were beaten 28-26 in what sounds like a thriller. Steve McCormack, the Scotland coach who is a teacher at Eddie's, was highly impressed.

Next, a note from Bill Arthur, to express his appreciation for the many messages he has received since "going public" with his prostate cancer in last week's Set in an effort to raise awareness of the condition and encourage the rest of us to get ourselves checked out. "I really appreciate the very supportive messages that have come my way," Bill emailed just after recording Super League Full Time on Sunday night. "But what is even more heartening is the fact that people are willing to listen to the message about prostate cancer, as that's the real purpose of March being Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. A friend of mine, John Taylor, who lives in the Lake District and is also undergoing treatment for prostate cancer at the moment, has been doing a great job getting into the clubs to try to get them to champion the cause. Warrington have got involved and it looks as if Leeds and Wigan are prepared to help raise awareness too. It is the most common form of cancer among men and one in eight men in the UK will get prostate cancer, yet awareness is still worryingly low. So well done to the rugby league community for listening and spreading the word."

That leaves no space whatsoever to preview the Easter programme, sorry. But whether you are going to Wigan-Saints, Sheffield-Doncaster, Workington-Whitehaven or London-Hemel, enjoy. And do respond below. We are really starting to develop some momentum.